Yesterday, the armoire I'd ordered arrived.

It is huge.

It looks much bigger than it did when I went furniture shopping. But then, it was in a furniture store, filled with other furniture items that were of, apparently, a similar scale. So it didn't look like the hulking wooden behemoth that it is. I'm not exactly sure what to do about it -- I suppose there isn't much to do about it, really, I can't return the thing and I do need the storage but... Well, it's just so big.

I think the thing to do might be to paint the thing. It at least will need some kind of varnish or woodstain or whathaveyou, it being just plain, sanded wood at the moment. (This is the kind of thing the multitudinous furniture stores on Steinway seem to specialize in -- affordable furniture made out of unfinished wood that they'll give to you at an even better price if you can pay for them in cash.)

When I bought my dresser from a similar place two years ago, I selected a "pecan" finish, which turned out a bit orange-y. I don't particularly like it, nor do I know what I was thinking when I bought that can of Minwax, but whatever. Now, I am faced with a bit of a dilemma: I can't really restain the dresser to a lighter color that might look, um, nicer (can I? Maybe if I sanded it all down, but that seems like a lot of work, doesn't it?) but I don't want to paint the GIANT armoire in the matching shade. It would be a lot of orange wood. I could go ahead and stain both of them a darker color, but I'm not really into painting my furniture mahogany when it's actually made out of maple. Just seems weird to me. Also, painting it a dark color doesn't seem like a good way to make the furniture seem less imposing. So, I am thinking I might go for something like a white color? Except our walls are a sort of warm off-white with a bit of a yellowish tint, so a true white paint would look weird, no?

I don't know. But I'm planning on making a trip to the hardware store this afternoon (although, NOT Home Depot. After The Great Air Conditioner Delivery Debacle of '05, I am NEVER SHOPPING AT THE HOME DEPOT AGAIN) to find out some good options for this dilemma. Stay posted. Maybe I'll even take pictures for you all.